‘House of Cards’ Recap: “Chapter 13”

The third season of House of Cards premieres on Netflix on February 27th, meaning you can watch the first two seasons — each of the 26 episodes — watching one episode per day just in time for the Season Three to drop on the streaming service. Join in with Joel Kim Booster, who will be watching each episode for the first time and recapping them every day.

Some shows choose to end out their seasons by charging towards a climax, barreling through plot points, blowing up existing relationships and shifting the status quo as it moves into its subsequent season. House of Cards, on the other hand, struggling to find direction after the end the murder of Peter Russo, chooses to casually jog its way across the finish line.

What is a season, exactly? For a show in this position, the definition is a fair bit looser than its televised counterpart. House of Cards was originally picked up for a 26-episode run, spanning two seasons, which means unlike your average freshman drama on a network, Beau Willimon knew he could tread a bit of water here without fear that he would be leaving Frank Underwood and company on a forever cliffhanger. Which is why, to me — and I imagine to many others — it felt like this show’s first “season” ended when Frank murdered Peter Russo. Indeed, nothing about the two major plot threads that have grown out of that incident have felt like a show building up to a season finale climax. Zoe’s turn from Frank’s press lapdog to journalist on the trail of a hot conspiracy feels like the show has fully moved on to a new season, if not a new show entirely.

I’m not quite sure what to make of Zoe’s transformation here either. House of Cards has always played fast and loose with her characterization, and while it’s not completely implausible that this character would pursue this story as doggedly as she has in these last two episodes, there’s really nothing you could point to that would make it an obvious step for her either. Even less of a case could be made for her partners in crime, Lucas and Janine.

Seriously, who the fuck are these people?

While the Scooby Gang dynamic that has suddenly cropped up since the last episode is fun to watch, it feels too contrived to really be very engaging. Reached a dead end in your investigation? No problem: Lucas used to be on the crime beat, and will lead us to the next clue in this little mystery, because of course he is.

Lucas is in the most difficult position this episode, charged with playing quite a significant game of catch-up in terms of being an actual character they remembered to write for this show. Right now it seems he is primarily defined by his relationship with Zoe, which seems to have materialized after one drunken kiss and that actor’s continued availability, nothing more. Despite Sebastian Arcelus’ best efforts, he still ends the episode the human equivalent of a saltine cracker. Dry, flavorless, and I’m not buying it.Did he mean it when he said he might be in love with Zoe? Is anyone, the writers of this show included, interested in the answer? Probably not.

These issues aside, having these three work together is a promising direction for the show to take them, though I do hope they find more interesting things for them to do. Why, thirty minutes into a 49-minute episode, am I watching Lucas sit at a bar attempting to trick a working girl into giving up information the audience already knows is beyond me. This isn’t fucking Hitchcock, so why are they treating these plot points so tediously?

We end the episode with Mystery, Inc. getting closer to the truth of Frank and Peter’s relationship (it takes them how long to figure out eleven episodes’ worth of plot?), and Stamper in turn learning that Zoe knows about Peter’s meeting with Kaperniak. The show is building up to a possible big shake up, inevitably complicating Frank’s Vice Presidency, that much is clear.

What’s not clear is who thought“esoteric international trade complications” would be the most exciting way to frame Frank’s final power grab of the season.

After introducing Raymond Tusk last episode as the first formidable opponent Frank has faced all season, we watch the two attempt to out-maneuver each other (mostly off screen) with the help of Linda Vasquez and Remy Danton. It’s all very exciting, with talks of scheduled meetings, shareholders meetings, and nuclear energy and — that big favor Tusk wanted from Frank? It all centered around some blather about US trade policies with China. Before he wanted Frank in Congress to help affect change there, but now he’s willing to let Frank do it from the White House (spoiler alert: he does!).

This season of the show could have been about the spiritual decay that comes about from a pursuit of power, and the ripple effects that kind of decay can have on relationships. Or, on the other side of that spectrum It could have been about a billionaire sociopath playing puppet master with a lesser congressional sociopath. But no. It’s about a fucking isotope.

This is a stunning illustration of a big struggle House of Cards seems to be wrestling with, one that I felt all the way back in the pilot. Just how over the top is it willing to go? Here they’ve created Raymond Tusk, a man who seemingly has had a hand in a lot of the peripheral plotting of this entire series thus far, which is crazy. It’s nuts! And yet they are completely uninterested in the actual implications of that.They play it safe. Sure, our protagonist just murdered a man a mere two episodes ago, but let’s end out the season in a BBQ rib joint talking about tariffs.

I’m very sure Tusk’s favor lies very much within the realm of real life politics, but just a few episodes ago Frank convinced the Vice President to run for governor because the President said some not-very-nice things about him, so you can’t tell me that this show is committed to realism.

It doesn’t seem willing to commit to its characters, either. Here Linda and Remy are both given a bit more to do, even if it is simply to advance the plot. Linda, in particular, becomes directly involved in Frank’s plotting in a way we haven’t seen yet this season, even going so far as to set up one of her staffers to get shit canned so Frank can advance his plan. But the show never really does any work to explain why Linda would want Frank in that VP chair so badly, except as payback for what comparatively seems like a pretty minor favor from Frank. How many kids does this lady have, and how many of them can Frank get into college in three seasons?

Remy, too, is given a flash of a character beyond just the bland corporate lackey we’ve seen all season, but even this feels like too little, too late for us to care about his apparent betrayal. They’ve dropped hints that Remy moved on from Frank to Sandcorps because of ambition, but we know so little about his past with Frank, or really what Sandcorps even is, that it’s impossible to do much but store this moment away and hope that Remy gets to step back into the vestibule at some point in Season Two.

While Frank gets his wish and advances to the Vice President’s chair, this episode doesn’t do seem invested in advancing our understanding of Frank. The memory of Peter Russo hangs over both the Underwoods this episode, though it’s clear that this is just another form of pageantry for Frank. The scene in the chapel in particular seemed to want you to think it was saying something important about who Frank is, but was anyone surprised that Frank is a pragmatic humanist?

Things have escalated rather quickly in Claire’s story, as Gillian Cole has declared an all out war with the CWI, dragging Claire into an unlawful termination lawsuit, built mostly on fabricated quotes. Her heart is in the right place, though, so I’m letting it slide. The show hasn’t really cared about Cole since she signed on with CWI earlier in the season, but having her employ her unborn baby’s kicks as a weapon against Claire was the kind of crazy I can get behind. It seemingly does the trick as well, silencing Claire in the moment and then sending her straight to the fertility clinic where we learn a bit more about her reproductive past.

It makes sense, too, as the hints have been dropped throughout the season, that despite her protestations to the contrary, Claire might want that family she gave up when she chose Frank all those years ago. I don’t love that the show is pushing Claire into what feels like well trod territory for lady characters of a certain age (“can she have it all?”), but I do appreciate that this is one of the few stories that they’ve told in a subtly serialized way. As frustrating and (in large part) boring as it was to watch Claire move through a midlife crisis all season long, it is the only cogent piece of character based storytelling (apart from Frank and Peter) the show has managed to maintain.

Which makes it all the more frustrating that they haven’t been able to carry this over to any of the other characters this season. Shows like House of Cards will not be remembered for their sweeping plots about teacher’s strikes or gubernatorial races — they’ll be remembered for their characters. And right now, I’m not sure I could tell you much specifically about any of them beyond Frank or my dearly departed Corey Stoll. Who is Zoe Barnes? Who is Linda Vasquez? Who is Doug Stamper? Does the show know? Should I?

As it moves into its third season, it’s obvious that this show is beloved. And there’s a part of me that gets that. This is a good show. But it’s not a Good show. Many of my friends have cited it as a thinking man’s alternative to soapy network dramas like Scandal, and I have to say to those folks, “Are you dumb?” This show may have a prestige visual sheen, but at its core it’s still a trashy soap, and as of now not an overwhelmingly compelling one.

But what do I know? I’m only halfway through with this little journey (and the show is only halfway through its original 26-episode order), and I’ve been wrong about a lot so far. Maybe things will turn around! Maybe the plots will get tighter and the characters will grow distinct motivations apart from what’s necessary to move the story along. Maybe I’ll finally get what all the fuss is about! Maybe Meechum (now a White House Secret Service agent) will suck some motherfucking dick.